Early Telephone

Man, now that you know about TV service I'll tell you about phones in Sag Harbor. They sucked big time. From the late 40's till spring 1965 most people had a black phone without a dial. You picked up the receiver and the operator said "Number please?" If you were calling someone in Sag Harbor all you had to say were the last four digits of the telephone number, not the SA5 or later 725 prefix. Most people had a party line with one to three other houses, so if someone else was yapping you couldn't make or receive a call. If it was a emergency such as a fire, you simply told the asshole who was using the telephone party line at the time, to get the fuck off the phone so you could call for help. In those days the operators, located in the telephone office at the intersection of Union and Church St would blow the fire whistle. A responding fireman would call the operator and get the location where he wrote it on a chalk board for other firemen arriving at the firehouse downstreet to see. Long distance in those days was expensive, about a buck a minute. In the Spring of 1965 the telephone Co. built a new switching center on the turnpike across from Sag Harbor industries and everyone had direct dial. The operators in the Union Street office were reassigned to other towns and the bldg. closed and later was sold to a private buyer. Later when the laws changed, you could buy your own wiring and phones and the telephone co. was only responsible up to where their wire entered your house. Nowadays you have a option of telephone service from Cablevision, cell services among others and the old phone company is no longer a monopoly!

An early 1955 Sag Harbor telephone book